This thesis primarily focuses on the colonial and imperial aspects of travel writing about Hawai‘i produced in the late 19th century (1870s and 1890s). I argue that narrative themes found in these travel writings created the vision of the “Imagined Hawai‘i” for the consumption of white (primarily Euro-American) visitors and settlers. Travel writers invited visitors and settlers to a virgin landscape of agricultural opportunity, while constantly questioning the civility of Kānaka ‘Ōiwi and the viability of the Hawaiian monarchy. The culmination of these narrative themes suggested that Hawai‘i was the rightful inheritance of Euro-American settlers, and that both Hawai‘i and Kānaka ‘Ōiwi would be better off under American control. The historiography of travel accounts is dominated by European and Euro-American writers, therefore, I consider mo‘olelo huaka‘i (stories of travel) of Kānaka ‘Ōiwi as an important but missing space of discourse. By doing so, I show that Kānaka ‘Ōiwi engaged in travel much differently than their Euro-American and European counterparts.

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M.A. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2016.Includes bibliographical references.